DNA of barley to boost crop research

Scientists on Wednesday unveiled a DNA map for barley that could spur improvements in yields and stress tolerance in one of the world's most important crops. One of the first domesticated grains, with its origins in the Fertile Crescent more than 10,000 years ago, barley is the fourth biggest cereal in terms of area and tonnage harvested. A consortium of scientists, publishing in the journal Nature, presented a "high-quality map," a key step in a six-year-old initiative to sequence barley's DNA, said Nils Stein of the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Germany. Plant breeders can use the draft to pinpoint traits that will improve strains, he said. "It is not the reference sequence for barley, but we can use it in a similar way," Stein told AFP. "It gives us straight access to the isolation of the genetic information underlying the important traits and allows us to efficiently utilise the genetic diversity (of barley)." Barley is a vital cash crop as well as a staple food for the poor in parts of North Africa, Central and South Asia. It is remarkably tough plant, able to cope with widely varied conditions from the sub-tropics to the Arctic circle. But like every cereal, it faces challenges from climate change, which will boost the risk of droughts and floods. Around three-quarters of global production of barley is used for animal feed, 20 percent is malted for use in drinks and five percent in food products. Other major crops that have been sequenced include corn, soybean, rice, millet, sugar cane, sorghum and the potato.